How professionals in pediatrics change the words they use to mitigate pain: A lexical description after a short hypnosis-based communication training

Background: Young patients who suffer from a pediatric condition are typically submitted to diverse and often repeated painful procedures. Theory and empirical studies suggest that communication styles used by healthcare professionals could mitigate such procedural pain. Recently, a hypnotic communication training (Rel@x) was developed with promising results. The present study aimed to describe how healthcare professionals change the words they use with patients after training. Methods: A nine-hour training in hypnosis-derived communication was offered to 78 volunteer healthcare professionals from a tertiary pediatric hospital, and 58 participated in the evaluative study. Participants were evaluated at baseline, immediately after the training, and 5 months later (39 ± 10 yrs, 52 women, 54 nurses). We used a video-recorded standardized simulation protocol of venipuncture, and five categories of words were derived. Word categories were corroborated in a validity study with 10 independent judges. We modeled pre-post-follow-up changes over time with latent growth curve models. Results: Following training, healthcare professionals used fewer words related to negative experiences (−51%) or medical procedures (−73%) and used more words referring to the relaxing and analgesic experience (+20%), and the specific techniques they had learned (Pleasant place +260%, Magic glove +582%). These changes were maintained at a proportion of 45–81% 5 months later. More change was observed among women and less experienced healthcare professionals. Conclusion: Results suggest that healthcare professionals exposed to a short, structured communication training aiming to mitigate pediatric pain durably adjust the language they use when performing a painful procedure. This is encouraging for future testing and implementation of hypnosis-derived communication training in healthcare providers.